updated 08:45 am EST, Fri December 3, 2010

Apple widens Moto lawsuit to get 12 more patents

Apple has quietly widened the scope of its ongoing countersuits against Motorola to include 12 more patents. The iPhone maker on Wednesday amended a Wisconsin lawsuit to accuse Motorola of infringing on 12 extra patents beyond the 12 that were already in play, most of which target Android. The move was a response to a motion for a declaratory judgment by Motorola in Delaware that could theoretically have ruled the patents invalid and prevented Apple from using them in court.

The new motion was accompanied by one on Thursday to dismiss Motorola's declaratory judgment case in Delaware or else move it to Wisconsin to better relate it to the widened lawsuit.

Expanding the legal action makes Motorola subject to as many as 24 Apple patents and gives Apple a symbolic edge, as Motorola's preemptive claims currently target Apple with 18 patents. Motorola is widely believed to have filed first suspecting that Apple's suing of HTC was the start of a campaign against major Android phone makers to slow them down or extract royalties. Apple has been bolstering its legal team to help take the edge in lawsuits. [via Florian Mueller]

hello Moto

you got SERVED

IANAL so I have no idea of the merits of the claims of either side but it sure is interesting how everyone's lawyering up, fascinating to see how all this shakes out and whether all these lawsuits will have any substantial impact on the smartphone market.

Batten down the hatches...

@Derek Morr

have you read the suit? How do you know it's patent trolling? A patent troll is someone who goes around suing (esp. in east Texas), hoping to get lucky and win or at least get paid to go away and stop taking up the time of the other side's attorneys.

Sounds more to me like this is typical corporate warfare, only the battlefield is the courtroom rather than the marketplace.